


Edward Elric and the Tetrawizard Tournament

by letsgooutintherain



Series: Tetrawizard Tournament [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Amestris is a school for witchcraft and wizardry, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Minor Character Death, Teacher-Student Relationship, calling it a relationship at this point is probably a stretch, more Roy trying to navigate around Ed's crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24386794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgooutintherain/pseuds/letsgooutintherain
Summary: It's the Tetrawizard Tournament, but Ed is actually more interested in the Hogwarts library. Those pesky tasks are just getting in the way of his research. Also a Yule Ball. Who came up with this again? Anyway, between the Tournament, NEWT preparations (because not even a champion is exempt from those), his research into a cure for Al and his giant if inconvenient crush on one Roy Mustang, their unfairly hot and competent trip supervisor, his year has a bit more excitement than he signed up for. Oh and apparently this Tournament is a giant murder plot, as if he didn't have enough on his plate already.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Series: Tetrawizard Tournament [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760923
Comments: 33
Kudos: 242
Collections: RoyEd month





	1. Hogwarts

"It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Tetrawizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

The what? Harry wondered, as the great hall descended into excited muttering.

It took a moment for things to calm down and Professor McGonnagal cleared her throat to get Dumbledore back on track, but finally an explanation followed: "The Tetrawizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the four largest European schools of wizardry - Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, Durmstrang and Amestris. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the four champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took turns hosting it and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the Tournament was discontinued."

"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, but Harry was much more interested in the present than deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago.

* * *

"Two down, one to go," Ron said, after he finally got over the shock of seeing Viktor Krum among the Durmstrang students.

"They're already here," Hermione said, "Look." 

Harry's gaze followed her arm, but it took a moment to realize that she wasn't just pointing at the darkening sky. Or rather she was, but the sky looked distorted as if watched through a prism.

Just then a rope fell down from that part of the sky, the end burrowing into the ground until it was drawn tight. It seemed everyone was holding their breaths, but for long seconds nothing happened at all. Just when Ron took a breath to comment, the shape in the sky swam into view, larger even than the Beauxbaton chariot had been. 

"It's a zeppelin," Dean exclaimed.

Harry just stared at it. The zeppelin was painted a rich green with a crest of a stylized white dragon on it. The passenger cabin had a row of windows but from this far down it was impossible to see more than vague movement behind the windows. 

"I expected something a bit more magical to be honest," Harry said.

"Well, if it had taken place anywhere else our delegation would have used the Hogwarts express to travel," Hermione commented, "That's also not very magical."

"We would?" Ron asked.

"Honestly Ron, it's in..."

"Hogwarts a History," Ron finished with an eye roll.

They were distracted by shouts and Harry tensed, looking up again, just in time to see a small fire ball collide with the ground, roaring up into a merry fire. 

Another beat of silence and then the fire flared up and a man with dark hair and vaguely asian features stepped out of the flames, wearing blue with a black coat over it.

"It's a floo street," Hermione whispered, "Has to be."

Harry didn't ask what the difference between a floo street and the floo network was, too distracted by the realization that the blue under the man's coat wasn't just some normal wizarding attire. He was wearing a military uniform. He was also young, much younger than the other headmasters had been. If he had to guess he'd even say younger than most if not all of their teachers. 

Behind him the fire flared and then one by one more students stepped out, but unlike the other schools, this lot didn't seem to have a dress code. Harry spotted cloaks in different colors, though the most eye catching was the guy in bright red. All in all there were only nine of them, forming little groups, whispering amongst each other and looking around curiously.

The man looked them over, nodded once and then finally walked up to Dumbledore. 

"Headmaster Dumbledore, King Bradley sends his regards, but he couldn't afford to take time away from his duties."

"Then we'll be glad to have you instead, Colonel Mustang," Dumbledore replied, "Let's get your student inside, I'm sure you'd all be grateful for a good meal after your journey."

"Hell, yes," the student in red shouted and then flinched when the one next to him elbowed him in the side.

Colonel Mustang shot a stern look over his shoulder, but if Harry wasn't mistaken there was some amusement in there as well. Dumbledore just twinkled merrily at it all: "Then come in, come in and welcome to Hogwarts."

* * *

Hogwarts was interesting Edward decided, after he, Al and Winry had settled at the table with the red banners. For one, what was it with the golden plates? Seemed a bit overkill in his book, but maybe that was their idea of company plates? 

Then there was the ceiling that used a similar charm to the one that hid their zeppelin during the flight. He had no idea why they'd charmed it that way but he had to admit it looked quite impressive. 

Hogwarts had less ghosts than Amestris did, but no wonder really, Hogwarts had had the good sense not to go to war. At least not the way Amestris had. They'd had trouble with a dark lord here some years ago if he remembered his history correctly, but the school itself had been more recruiting ground than an actual target.

"Krum, Harry, Viktor Krum! And he's decided to sit with the Slytherins," a redhead exclaimed and settled close to them at the table.

"For heaven's sake, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player," a bushy haired girl replied and Ed was about to tune them out, when Winry perked up.

"Did you say Viktor Krum is here?"

Ed groaned and buried his head in his arms. Really? Al patted him consolingly on the back.

"Yes. Apparently he still goes to school," the redhead said.

"Cool," Winry said, "I'm Winry, that's Alphonse and the lump playing dead over there is Edward."

"Does this mean the Quidditch talk is over?" Ed asked, not bothering to lift his head.

"You don't like Quidditch?" the redhead exclaimed, at the same time as the girl said "It is."

Ed looked up in time to see both of them glaring at each other.

The third of them rolled his eyes and then smiled. "I'm Harry and those two are Ron and Hermione."

"Nice to meet you all," Al said, "Which year are you in?"

"Fourth," the girl, Hermione, answered, and then: "Is it true that Amestris has a focus on alchemy?"

"You don't have to take the course," Winry said, "I didn't, but it's what Amestris is known for. We've produced some of the best, but with Flamel and Dumbledore stealing all the thunder, no-one outside the field cares quite as much."

Hermione looked interested, but then people started filing in again and Ed's focus shifted to them. The first were all strangers, but then he recognized Crouch and Bagman from their information packages. The heads of the schools entered next and Ed's gaze was unerringly drawn to Roy. He stood out with his uniform, but that didn't mean he was the most eye catching. Well, okay, to Ed he was, but at least in terms of what he was wearing Dumbledore had him beat.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," Dumbledore greeted, once he reached the head table and beamed happily at them all. Ed considered him. Dumbledore had a reputation, both as an alchemist and for defeating Grindelwald and from what he'd read he also held high positions in the ICW and Britain's Wizengamot on top of being a headmaster. This old and friendly impression was not what he had expected of him at all and Ed frowned. There really were only two possible reasons. Either the man really loved being headmaster or he tried to appear more harmless than he was. 

Ed let the speech wash over him, not really interested in the usual welcoming stuff that came with such an event. Roy of course was paying attention, probably looking for double meanings and other political stuff. He turned away before either Al or Winry could catch him staring and only zoned in again when food appeared all over the table. 

Ed grinned and made sure to load his plate with every unfamiliar dish he could find. No reason to waste an opportunity to try new things. His gaze fell on Al's plate who stuck to the trusted and true combinations he always chose. Ed swallowed against the sudden tightness in his throat.

Al caught his gaze and rolled his eyes at him. "Stop looking, start eating and then tell me what is worth to try once I get my sense of taste back."

Winry smiled at them, but she too reached for the foreign dishes. 

"Is there a reason why you three sit here instead of all together like the other schools?" Hermione asked, looking over at the yellow table where Tringham and his lot had sat down and then the table after that, where Ling was apparently trying to charm the French while Lan-Fan rolled her eyes at him.

Ed opened his mouth, but Al kicked his shin and answered instead: "This is supposed to be about international friendship. Didn't seem like a good idea for all of us to befriend the same people."

Winry rolled her eyes. "Don't let him fool you. It's more that putting Ed, Ling and Russel in close proximity is generally a recipe for disaster."

"It's not my fault they're idiots," Ed protested.

"They are not," Al said with a sigh.

"No, but Ling has made it a hobby to annoy Ed and the rivalry between him and Russel has reached ridicules proportions." Winry explained for the other three.

"Not my fault either. I'd leave it alone if he could just stop to try and one up me."

"You could let him think he won," Al countered.

Ed stared at him. "Why would I do that?"

The redhead, Ron, snorted. 

Winry once again rolled her eyes.

* * *

"Please don't do this," Ed whispered as they went to breakfast the next morning. 

"We talked about this," Al replied with an eye roll.

Ed sent him a glare. "You will not enter that tournament, you are already handicapped." Without a sense of touch Al might not even notice if he got injured. 

"And you aren't?" Al countered, knocking against Ed's metal arm, "Besides the price for coming was participating, we knew that, we accepted that."

Ed looked away with a sigh.

"Boys, honestly," Winry muttered, fingering her own strip of paper, "Just get it over with."

They entered the castle, just in time to see Tringham put his name into the Goblet of Fire. He narrowed his eyes when he spotted Ed, but didn't stay to watch them put their own names in.

"Maybe we'll all be lucky and his name will come out," Al muttered. 

"I wish."

Ed looked around and saw a number of eyes on them, mostly Hogwarts students, but a few of the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students were also milling around. 

Ed forced himself to shrug it off, stalked over with his head held high and threw his paper in, Winry and Al following suit.

"We all know it's one of you two," Winry said, as they walked on to the dining room, "Otherwise I wouldn't have come."

Ed grimaced. "You didn't have to come."

"I'm just as curious about the Hogwarts library as you two," Winry protested, "And who's prosthesis am I going to experiment on if I don't have you right here?"

"Degraded to test subject," Ed said with a dramatic sigh.

"Is anyone going to comment on the life bats flying around or did you just not see them?" Al interrupted. 

Ed slowly looked up and there were indeed life bats flying high under the ceiling. 

"Well, it is Halloween," Winry said.

"Yeah, but it's life bats in a room full of noisy students," Al replied, "In full daylight."

"Let's hope they put a muffling charm over our heads then," Ed said distractedly, eyes going towards the staff table, hoping to see Roy already awake.

He was and Ed resisted the urge smile, just kept watching for a moment. Roy looked up and caught his gaze, holding it for a few seconds. Then he turned back to a man with shoulder length black hair.

Ed suppressed a sigh and turned back to his food only to find both Winry and Al looking at him.

"What?"

"Nothing," Al said with a smile that felt much too gentle.

Ed decided to ignore them both. It was none of their business anyway.

"Who's up for a trip to that library once we have finished?"

* * *

Hogwarts, it turned out, was a nightmare to navigate, because apparently the castle had quirks. All heavily charmed objects tended to develop them sooner or later and correcting those quirks with even more charms usually only made it worse. Hogwarts seemed to take the cake though. 

So far they had found two doors that weren't doors at all and a trick step. 

"You need to tickle that," a student helpfully told them, when they stood before yet another closed door. 

Ed finally had enough. "Besides trick steps and strange doors, what else do we need to look out for?"

Which was how they learned that some staircases led somewhere else on Sundays. Because why not.

"And I thought the old wing of Amestris was strange," Winry said, but then stopped to stare when they finally found the library. 

Ed followed her in, eyes going wide. The library was gigantic, full of rows and rows of books. The scent of leather and parchment hung in the air and light flooded in through the big windows. This was heaven.

Now he only had to find the books that held clues for developing a cure for Al's nerve damage. Where to start though? Potions? Medicine? 

Potions he decided. Al would start with the medicine books anyway. He'd tell Ed if any of them were worth looking at.

He didn't even see Winry walking off in the direction of the charms section.

* * *

Despite himself Ed's nerves fluttered uneasily when Dumbledore dimmed the light for dramatic effect. Next to him Al's knee was bouncing and Winry's grip on Al's hand was white, not that Al would notice the pressure. 

Ed gently nudged her hand and she looked down and then lightened her grip, taking Ed's prosthesis with the other hand. She could grip that as tight as she wanted. 

The goblet flared.

"The Durmstrang champion is Viktor Krum."

Ed had to stop himself from gripping Winry's hand tighter. Winry had given his prosthesis an extra bit of strength, so right now he could probably break her fingers if he wasn't careful.

"The Beauxbaton champion is Fleur Delacour."

"Breathe," Ed whispered in Al's direction.

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory."

Ed's own leg started bouncing too, but Al's free hand stilled it.

"The champion for Amestris is Edward Elric."

Ed closed his eyes and took a deep breath, lightly squeezed Winry's hand and patted Al's shoulder and then stood up, head held high. 

He might not have wanted to compete, but he wasn't stupid enough to show it now. For better or worse he would represent Amestris in an international competition and even he didn't think it was a good idea to leave a bad impression by not giving it his all.

And a part of him was relieved. Al was brilliant and his chances to be chosen had been just as high as Ed's, but Ed wasn't sure if he could have handled Al having to face those tasks with anything resembling good grace. No, this was the better alternative. 

He caught Roy's gaze when he went up to the head table. Roy nodded and Ed let the simple gesture steady him. Roy would have his back. 

He broke the gaze before it could become obvious and stepped through the door into the next room, settling off to the side into the shadows beyond the fire place to wait for their instructions.

* * *

The first sign that something was wrong, well more wrong than being a champion in the first place, was when the kid they had talked to at the welcoming feast stepped into the room looking shell shocked. The absolute non-reaction to Bagmans congratulations and the other champions protest was the next hint and the commotion of raised voices following soon after him was the final nail in the coffin.

The door opened and more teachers and Tournament organizers spilled in. Roy ignored them all though and strode over to Ed, gaze once again meeting and holding his and then cocked his head. Ed gave a nod and a grimace to the unspoken question whether he was all right and watched as Madam Maxime and Professor Karkaroff joined the protests.

"On a scale of one to ten, how upset is Bradley going to be when he hears about this?" Ed asked, voice just hushed enough that only Roy would hear. 

"Very," Roy replied with a sigh, "Amestris could have used some good international publicity. This throws the whole Tournament in question."

"He didn't enter himself," Ed said. 

"No, he didn't," Roy agreed with a frown, just as the teacher in black tried to insinuate just that.

"What makes you think so?" the Hogwarts champion asked, stepping next to them. Ed frowned, trying to remember his name. Something about digging. 

"Look at his reaction," Ed said, "I've also no idea where I'd even start if I wanted to try fucking with the enchantments on that goblet and I'm considered a prodigy."

The guy nodded. "Fair point."

Roy nudged him slightly, drawing his attention back to the proceedings.

Crouch was speaking now. "We must follow the rules and the rules state clearly that those people who's names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the Tournament."

"And here they go again," Ed muttered as everyone promptly started to protest the unfairness again. As in, the unfairness of two Hogwarts champions as opposed to the unfairness that a fourth year was now forced to compete in a Tournament that was designed for sixth and seventh years. Ed really hoped their security measures for the tasks were better than the ones for the Goblet.

And then Roy finally moved into the fray: "I agree that the situation is unfortunate, but Amestris is not going to be worried about a bit of extra competition, even if the competition is rather famous." Now the glares went from Dumbledore to Roy, who answered with a charming smile.

Wait. Famous? They had called him Potter and he'd introduced himself as Harry. As in Harry Potter, only known survivor of a killing curse. Ed mentally shook his head at himself for not putting the pieces together sooner.

Just then a new person entered, magical eye, scars and a limp, in short he looked both dangerous and deranged, but he also took Harry's side, even if he implied this might be a murder plot. If so it really didn't speak for the security measures of this thing.

* * *

Ed waited until they were all dismissed and the other Hogwarts champion had said his good byes to Harry, before approaching himself. 

"From one champion who doesn't want to compete to another: My sincere condolences."

Harry glanced at him with a frown. "If you don't want to compete, why did you put your name in?"

Ed shrugged. "I'm here for the library, but if we wanted to come, we had to put our names forward."

Harry looked at him like he was crazy, but it was a reaction and that was better than the blank look he'd held for most of the proceedings. "You're mental."

Ed just grinned.

* * *

"Fullmetal, Mr Elric, Miss Rockbell." Ed looked up from his breakfast to find Roy holding a small stack of parchment out to them. "Here are your class schedules and your permission slips to access the alchemy books from the restricted section. You're taking the core subjects with the Gryffindors and Professor Dumbledore has offered to be available for questions should any of you have problems with your assigned Alchemy projects. Professor Izumi expects regular updates by owl."

"Thank you Colonel," Al said.

Ed just nodded and studied his schedule. Looked all right. Now it was just a question of how good their lessons were. By the time he looked up Roy was already at the Hufflepuff table, giving out more schedules.

"Why is he calling you Fullmetal?" the redhead sitting on their left asked. Another nearly identical redhead sat on the opposite side of the table, looking just as interested.

"It's his call sign," Al replied. "We all get one when we go into the field. Winry's is Mechanic. Russel is Plantbender. Ling and Lan-Fan are Prince and Bodyguard. Colonel Mustang's is Flame."

"What about you?" the second redhead asked.

"He's Armour," Winry replied amused. Al rolled his eyes. 

"But he didn't call you Armour." The first redhead again. 

"Or Mechanic." The second redhead gave Winry a grin.

"Usually they don't stick," Ed muttered.

"Yeah, but yours was announced in front of the whole school," Al replied amused, "Of course at the time it really wasn't funny."

"His call sign was Halfmetal originally," Winry chimed in, "But he kept a cool head when his assignment went wrong, so when he got home he got an award and General Bradley said he proved it wasn't just the prosthesis, he had a core of pure steel and we'd better call him Fullmetal from now on."

"And now half the school and even some teachers insist on calling me that," Ed said with an eye roll.

"What's that about assignments?" A boy with dreadlocks chimed in.

"We're German," Al explained, "It's the Never Again Agreement."

"Never again what?" a girl asked from their other side.

"Following megalomaniacs with stupid ideals, war, subjugation, extermination. The list is long, take your pick," Ed said.

"And the assignments?" The first twin asked.

"We see the consequences of war," Winry said, "I spent three weeks in military hospitals and one in a mobile surgical hospital at the edge of a warzone. Al went with a group who helped with rebuilding efforts. Ed, Ling and Lan-Fan were with a group that brought food. They make sure we are safe of course. We have supervisors, emergency portkeys and everything."

"Shit load of good it did us," Ed muttered.

"What happened?" Another girl asked, leaning around the first to get in on the conversation.

"Opportunists saw some young foreign wizards and hoped someone would pay for us. The first we knew that something was wrong was when our supervisor was hit with a blasting curse. Portkey and apparition wards went up and it only went downhill from there." Ed shook his head. 

He wasn't keen to remember that. The absolute horror of suddenly being alone, far from home and under attack. Ed had managed to draw attention away from Ling and Lan-Fan long enough for them to get out of range of the wards and raise the alarm, but it had still felt like forever before Colonel Mustang arrived, all fire and fury, reducing the battlefield to ashes in minutes.

"So why do you have a Colonel to represent your school?" The first girl asked apparently realizing this wasn't a good topic.

"Our military was built from the remnants of the resistance," Al explained, "They were about the only people anyone trusted after Grindelwald, which is how they ended up in charge of the government and school and a lot of other things too. It's been years but even now about half of our teachers are military."

"General Bradley is head of the military and therefore both head of our government and headmaster of our school. That doesn't exactly leave time to come here to supervise our part in the Tournament, so he sent Mustang instead," Ed added.

He could understand their curiosity but he had enough of the twenty questions routine, grabbed some toast and left the table. 

He could just hear Winry speaking into the silence his absence had left. "So, who are all you guys then?"

A moment later Al fell into step. "You all right?"

"Sure," Ed replied, "Let's see that we find our way to the classroom. It's going to be hard enough with how many quirks this castle has."

Luckily Al let it go, just nodded and bumped his shoulder into Ed's.

* * *

Ed slipped into Roy's office once classes were over, transfigured the chair into a couch and promptly stretched out on it.

Roy looked up from whatever he was doing and rolled his eyes. 

"You know, I didn't promise you my door was always open so you could escape the chaos in the common room."

"Should have added conditions to the offer then," Ed replied and pulled his Charms book out.

Roy's gaze stayed on him for a few more seconds, but then he went back to his work without kicking Ed out. He took it as a win.


	2. The First Task

Despite the Tournament none of the teachers slowed down any. Which was good, considering that Ed and Al would have to sit their NEWTs at the end of the year, but it also put a damper on their research time. 

The first few days were pretty normal, if one ignored that the rumor mill was apparently still speculating how Harry had managed to enter the tournament. Not that Ed was paying much attention to gossip, but Winry liked to keep an ear to the ground. 

That was also how Ed got informed of the school divide about which champion to support, because apparently saying both just wasn't in the cards. House pride over school pride or something. And then on the third day things took a turn towards nasty when the buttons showed up.

Support Cedric. Potter stinks. 

Ed scowled and even Al lost some of his usual cool.

It also didn't help his mood when the date for the stupid press slash wand weighing thing came, telling him he'd miss Arithmancy. 

"I'll take notes," Al said, but that didn't really help with the press part. Ed grimaced, took his bag and braved the maze that was the castle. 

He eventually found the classroom. The other voluntary champions, Bagman and a guy with a camera were already there, but Harry was still missing and so were Roy and the rest of the school heads. And the wand maker of course. On the up side that meant he wasn't late. On the down side he now had to wait for this to begin when he could have been sitting in Arithmancy instead.

He scowled and sat down on one of the tables that had been pushed to the wall. Waste of time, the whole thing. When nothing else happened, Ed got out his quill and parchment and started on his Tranfiguration homework. He didn't get far before the door opened and Dumbledore stepped in. 

Ed couldn't help it, his eyes immediately skipped past him to find Roy. Roy gave him a smile and a raised eyebrow at the parchment and quill, but didn't move over to him.

"Where is our fifth champion?" Dumbledore asked.

"Oh, Miss Skeeter had a few questions for him," Bagman replied jovially.

The shift in Dumbledore's expression wasn't big, but some of the twinkling seemed to go down. And what was that twinkling about anyway? A cosmetic charm linked to his mood maybe? If so it was a brilliant piece of magic. Also quite pointless, but the guy was also wearing robes in patterns that even Ed could tell were eccentric at best. Whatever. To each their own. 

"I'll go retrieve them," Dumbledore stated.

"The rest of you, please sit down over there," Crouch said.

Ed sighed, but put his stuff away again and took the free seat next to the Hogwarts champion. Cedric. 

He looked over at him. "I saw an awful lot of badges today," he said.

Cedric grimaced. "They are Malfoy's. I told everyone that Harry didn't enter himself, but I don't think they really wanted to hear it." He shook his head, "I made a rule though. I'm not talking to anyone who's wearing a badge." 

"Good man," Ed replied, "Though I'm more surprised the teachers aren't stepping in."

"They rarely do," Cedric said, "Unless someone is in active danger we are supposed to solve our own problems."

"Lovely," Ed muttered, just as the door opened again and Dumbledore stepped in, followed by Harry and a witch in a magenta dress. 

"May I present Ollivander," Dumbledore said, once everyone had sat down. He pointed to the only other person Ed hadn't recognized. The man looked old and his pale eyes were a little unsettling. 

Ed leaned back as Ollivander took the floor. He started with Fleur, who had an unusual, but highly personalized wand core with the hair of her Veela grandmother. Ed had never dived deep into wand lore but even he knew that a wand like that would probably never answer to anyone outside her family.

Cedric's wand contained unicorn hair, Viktor's dragon heartstring. Ed wondered if the Durmstrang champion hadn't wanted to compete either, because as of yet Ed hadn't seen him show anything other than a scowl. 

"Mr Elric."

Ed reluctantly stood up and handed his own wand over. "Another dragon heartstring," Ollivander said, "Oak, ten and three quarter inches. I don't recognize the wandmaker, though. It's not one of Schulte's."

"Kröger," Ed supplied, "Schulte had trouble matching my need for off-hand casting."

Ollivander's eyes lit up. "Oh, those are always a delight to match. Not easy of course, but good things rarely are." He looked at the wand once again, lifted it as if listening to it and then wordlessly conjured a white mice.

"It's in fine working order," he said. 

Ed was more interested in what he had sensed, how he had sensed it and also a bit more about wand lore in general, but he already had enough things to look into without adding another research project, so he forced himself to let it lie. 

It took forever for Ollivander to get past Harry's wand and then they had to pose for photos, which took even longer because the reporter had an obsession with Harry and the photographer one with Fleur. Why no-one even tried to pay attention to the Quidditch star was anyone's guess.

Finally, finally they were free to go to dinner and they had a full three weeks before Ed had to worry about the first task. Well, unless anyone figured out what the task actually was.

* * *

Ed winced when he saw the Daily Prophet article the next day. Bradley would not be happy that his school had been sidelined. Again. He also wondered what the Daily Prophet was playing at. Considering the Tournament was about international cooperation this was definitely not the way to go. 

Up at the head table Roy was frowning and Ed wished he could cheer him up. Or annoy him. Either would work to get him to stop looking like that. 

Also, he didn't envy Harry one bit.

* * *

They had only just sat down to dinner, when the trio around the involuntary second Hogwarts champion took the seats next to them.

"Hey, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" It was Hermione.

"Depends on the question," Ed said warily at the same time as Al said "Go ahead."

Ed rolled his eyes when Al shot him a look. 

"Um, see, I wanted to ask about Alchemy. Hogwarts hasn't taught it for years now and most of the books that cover it are in the restricted section. Madam Pince says it's because self study is dangerous, but how am I supposed to know if I even want to learn about it, if I don't know what exactly one can do with it? The few books I found aren't clear on whether this is more like potions or if it's magic or something else entirely."

"Hermione, breathe," Ron said from her other side. He had the exact same hair color as those twins had.

Hermione blushed bright red. "Sorry."

"Don't worry. Um, let's see," Al said with a frown, "Alchemy is used in combination with magic. Or in combination with potions if that's what you're into."

"Every spell that works with one of the magical elements is fair game for manipulation," Ed added.

"What kind of manipulation?" Hermione asked and Ed nearly laughed as she pulled out a parchment and started taking notes.

"Power, range, fine manipulation. Take an incendio for example. It's a bolt of fire with a range of maybe four metres and that's it. No variation. But let's say you want a continuing jet of fire or you want it to go around an obstacle. You could probably dig up spells that do that, but it would be a whole different spell with its own rules. Or you could use alchemy. Colonel Mustang can do just about anything with an incendio. Fire ring, sculptures, a jet that goes through the whole hall..."

"So those elements are more like the earth, water, fire and air than like the ones from the periodic table?"

"Both and a few more on top of it," Ed said, "Tringham over there does plant alchemy."

"What about potions?"

"There is water in potions and most of the ingredients can be considered elements," Al said, "That is if you find the right books to tell you how to work those elements."

Yeah. And they hadn't found the right books for years.

* * *

"Dragons?" Ed asked incredulously.

"Nesting mother dragons," Roy replied.

"Fuck me sideways."

"Language, Fullmetal."

"For god's sake, that call sign wasn't funny the first time and it hasn't gotten any better since then," Ed growled. 

"Perhaps not, but your reaction is always good entertainment."

"Well, in that case you won't mind if I call you Flame," Ed said, grinning wide, "You are definitely hot enough to pull it off even without the magic."

There was half a beat of silence that told Ed he'd scored with that one. And then: "Ed," half warning, half reprimand. 

Ed shrugged it off. He was of age by wizarding standards, would soon be by the standards of non-magical's too. He could flirt if he wanted to. 

"You have bigger problems on your hands," Roy said, bringing them back on track. 

"Like dragons," Ed said with a sigh. What were they thinking, sending them against a level five restricted beast? Fuck. "Do we know what we have to do with them? Subdue them? Sneak past them? Kill them? No, not that one. Not if they brought nesting mothers."

"I don't know. Better plan for all of them."

Ed closed his eyes. He'd come here for the books. They had already found some promising leads, but now preparation for the task would have to take precedent. "I'll have to brush up on my Transfiguration and Alchemy. And you better teach me some tricks how not to get burned."

"I'll do you one better," Roy replied, "I'll teach you how to use their fire. I'll meet you here every day after dinner."

"I'll be there," Ed replied, and let his grin widen. "Flame." He let the door shut behind him before Roy could reply.

* * *

A hand full of days to prepare for meeting a dragon was not much, but Ed had a plan. And about five backup plans, four of which courtesy of Roy. He was also a little worried, because every single one of them used NEWT level spells or Alchemy or both and they had a champion who hadn't even sat his OWLs yet. The kid was aware of it too, if his white complexion was anything to go by. 

Oh, fuck it. 

"You have a plan?" he asked, stepping up to him. Not that he could do much now, but he probably should at least ask.

Harry looked at him wide eyed, but then nodded jerkily. 

"Good," Ed said and turned away again, not really in the mood for more small talk. He took another glance at his model of the Romanian Longhorn and then shook his head. Dragons, honestly, what had the organizers been thinking?

Then the canon sounded and Krum went out. Ed would be next. He took a breath. He'd be fine.

Al would kill him if he wasn't.

* * *

Ed slowly stepped into the arena, wand at the ready. On the other end of it was a giant greenish dragon with golden horns, eyeing him right back. 

All right then. He really hoped this would work. 

He lifted his wand and started a Transfiguration on a scale only an alchemist could pull off. First slow, then more rapidly the ground rose into six thick stone columns directly around the dragon, caging it with barely any room to move. 

The mother dragon reared up but couldn't exactly fly away without room to stretch her wings. Instead she lashed out at the nearest column, throwing her weight against it with an ominous cracking sound, but the column didn't break. 

"That's some impressive long distance transfiguration, maybe with a hint of alchemy mixed in," Bagman commented, his voice echoing loud around the arena.

Another deep breath. Another transfiguration. This time he focused on caging the head and tail, but by now the dragon was wise to what was happening, head rearing around before the columns really got of the ground and then fire was rushing at him, clear over the whole arena.

With a curse Ed dropped the Transfiguration, rolled to the side and muttered the spell-alchemy combination Roy had taught him, taking control of the fire, directing it up and away from himself. He kept it up, stepping closer and around the dragon until it could no longer bend its neck far enough and thanks to the columns it had no room to turn. 

Ed breathed and once again transfigured the ground, this time managing to catch its head between two columns.

Ed hesitated but then convinced his legs to move, stepping up to the dragon, which was now throwing itself against the new prison bars with increasing desperation. The dragon knew Ed was close but with its head trapped it couldn't see him. 

Ed moved carefully between the columns and then between the legs of the dragon and picked the golden egg up, before walking back. He was nearly out, but then the dragon moved with what little room it had, claw hitting his right foot and slicing through it like butter.

Ed stumbled and fell, but managed to keep hold of the egg. At least it hadn't been his flesh leg, though, if the screams of the crowd were anything to go by, they hadn't realized that yet. With a grimace he got back to his good foot, then tested how the other would take his weight. The heel held but the rest of the foot was a lost cause. It was enough to walk on though, so Ed limped further out of reach of the stomping dragon feet.

Handlers were already streaming on the field and Ed smirked when he saw their eyes widen when he was still upright and more or less steadily walking away. 

Slowly, as if a bit disbelieving, the crowd started to cheer. 

And then finally Ed was out of the arena where Al and Winry were waiting, each throwing their arms around him, as soon as he got in reach.

"God damn it Ed, you've got to be more careful," Al whispered, nearly crushing him.

"You're an idiot," Winry added, "I'm so glad you are all right, even if you mangled my prosthesis."

Ed held them just as tightly and only let go when a witch walked up to them and cleared her throat. 

"You should go to the first-aid tent, Mr Elric, before the judges give their decision."

"I'm fine," Ed replied, "No offense, but Winry will know how to repair my prosthesis better than any healer could."

The witch looked at his foot then nodded and made a gesture which was probably meant to signal the judges. 

He looked up, bracketed between Winry and Al. Madam Maxime went first, giving him an eight. Bagman and Crouch followed suit. Roy gave him a nine. Dumbledore too gave nine and Karkaroff a seven.

"You are in first place," Al said, "Krum is currently second, followed by Fleur and then Cedric. Though, Fleur honestly deserved more points. It was impressive magic. She put her dragon in an enchanted sleep."

"I don't care about the points anyway," Ed replied, "Come on, let's find some place to sit, so Winry can look at my foot."

Winry actually didn't get further than repairing the general form of his foot, before they finally managed to exchange Ed's dragon for an Hungarian Horntail and they all watched as Harry flew rings around it.

With his time and lack of injury Harry would have deserved first place, but Kararoff gave him even less points than Ed, so they ended up tied.

* * *

Roy caught up with him once he left the champions tent and Winry and Al backed off a few steps.

"Are you all right?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine. The prosthesis doesn't have pain receptors yet, so a bit of a limp until Winry has sorted out all of the charms is the worst of it."

"Oi, I'm working on pressure sensors, not pain receptors, what do you take me for?" Winry called over.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Sure you do. And then you'll add pain receptors to make sure I don't damage your precious work."

Winry stuck her tongue out at him. 

Roy chuckled. 

"I see you're in good hands. In that case I won't keep you and I'm sure I'll know nothing about whatever you lot might get up to in the common room tonight, as long as you remember to put up silencing charms."

"They planned a party?" Ed asked. 

"I think this is Mr Yao's doing," Roy replied amused, "But I'm sure at least Miss Rockbell had a hand in it as well."

"Of course she did." He looked at Roy, hesitated for a second but then did it anyway. "Come by the party. At least for a butterbeer or something."

Roy shook his head. "Better not. Let me tell you, a teacher will just put a cramp in your style."

"It's my party," Ed said stubbornly, "And you are no teacher."

Roy smirked. "I'm the responsible adult. And since you had no hand in the planning I'd say it's their party, you are just the guest of honor."

Ed shrugged. Worth a try at least. "All right. Go have a boring night."

"Who ever said it was going to be boring?" Roy replied with a smirk and walked away towards the castle. 

Ed rolled his eyes.

* * *

You could pinpoint the exact day when the teachers announced the Yule Ball at Hogwarts, because suddenly about a quarter of the population looked at him as if he was a particularly tasty cauldron cake. 

Ed looked at Winry. "Pretty please?" 

"Nope," Winry replied, "I'd actually like to find someone to go out with for a bit. The Weasley twins look quite good and some of the Durmstrang students have delightful muscles."

"Just as long as they keep their hands to themselves," Ed muttered.

Winry promptly kicked his shin. "Where they keep their hands is my business, not yours."

"Fine," Ed grumbled, rubbing his leg, "So damn violent."

She poked her tongue out at him.

He turned to his other option. Going with his brother would probably look a little odd but Ed honestly didn't care. "Al?"

"I... well..." Al stammered and blushed, his gaze going further up the table. 

Ed followed where he was looking and his eyes landed on a tiny asian girl. 

Ed raised his brows. 

"Her name's May. She's a fifth year," Al said. 

Ed sent Al a gentle smile. 

"All right then, if all of you abandon me to my fate, who the hell am I supposed to take to the stupid ball?" Because the one person he wanted to ask couldn't say yes. He carefully didn't think about if he would say yes if Ed wasn't a student.

Why couldn't he have fallen in love with someone his own age? Oh yes, because Roy had once pulled them from the rubble of their home after the botched resurrection attempt and then entered his life again in a blaze when the Never Again mission went to hell, saving him yet again. It didn't help that the man was unfairly hot and had told Ed his door was always open to him.

Ed may have abused that offer a little more often that he should have.

"You could ask Ling," Al suggested.

"Not that he wouldn't be delighted if you asked, but he'll go with Lan-Fan," Winry replied. 

"Russel?" Al asked, but even he sounded dubious at the idea. 

"Well, at least he swings that way," Winry replied. 

"I'm doomed," Ed muttered.

* * *

"Hey Tringham," Ed called, before the other boy could vanish after classes. 

Tringham turned around. "What?"

"I need a partner for the Yule Ball and my favorite siblings have decided to abandon me."

Tringham snorted. "And you're asking me?"

"I would have asked him," Ed pointed at Ling, "But it was pointed out that he'll go with Lan-Fan."

"Very true," Ling agreed, "But I'm sure I can still manage to fit a dance with you in."

Ed rolled his eyes. He had no idea what Ling's fascination with him was. Okay he had. He had saved both him and Lan-Fan during that stupid mission. The problem was that Ling had an obnoxious way of showing his gratitude.

"Fine," Tringham said after a second of thought, "Just don't expect me to stick around if I find someone more interesting."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Ed replied.

"And I'm leading," Tringham added. 

"Are you sure you can lift me?" Ed challenged.

Tringham glared. "Sure I can, small as you are, you can't weigh much."

"Who are you calling small, you're barely a half pint yourself!" Ed shouted. 

"Still taller than you, asshole," Tringham replied eyes narrowed, "If you're finished throwing a tantrum, I have a library to get back to."

"Fuck you too," Ed replied and stalked away.

"That went better than I thought it would," Al commented behind him.

"It really did," Winry agreed.

* * *

"Wow, I thought it was just your leg. How did that happen?" Ron asked one morning at breakfast, pointing at where Ed's sleeve had slipped high enough to reveal the metal underneath.

"Magical accident when I was a kid," Ed replied shortly. The failed resurrection of their mother still haunted his nightmares. And now that he knew more about magic he also had to be glad they hadn't ended up with an inferi on their hands. 

Ron promptly flinched and grimaced as if he had been kicked under the table. 

"How do they work? You seem to be able to move them," Hermione asked.

"That's Winry's specialty," Ed said, nudging Winry who was talking to the twins and the dreadlocks boy, "Hey Win, she's asking about the prosthesis.

Winry's eyes lit up and she launched into an explanation of all the charms she had tweaked to make sure Ed could move his prosthesis like a real limb and without any discomfort.

* * *

"Surprise!" Ed nearly flinched back, before catching that reaction and glaring instead. 

The common room was filled with flying bubbles in red and gold and a banner said 'Happy Birthday Ed', the color changing through all colors of the rainbow. 

"Another party?" Ed asked incredulously.

"There can never be enough parties!" Ling replied and pressed a glass of butterbeer into his hands. Behind him Lan-Fan smirked in that way that meant she knew exactly how little Ed thought of parties and was now silently laughing at his misfortune. 

"One night of fun won't hurt you," Winry chimed in and took a butterbeer, handing it to Al, before taking a second one for herself. 

Ed turned to Al, but Al just shrugged and took a sip of his glass. "She's not wrong."

"No, not you too." 

Al grinned.


	3. The Second Task

Even after finding a partner for the Yule Ball Ed had to turn down three girls, but at least after that the rumor mill seemed to have finally alerted everyone that he had someone.

With that out of the way Ed, Al and Winry could concentrate on the second task.

"What do we know?" Winry asked, "Apart from screeching?"

"It's not just sound though," Al said. "Look at the inside. It looks like bubbles under water."

"So we have water and screaming," Ed listed, "I could look into sound decoding spells."

"I'm not sure about the screeching, but unless they build a pool for this, the only water around here is the lake," Winry added.

"So we research the lake and decoding sound," Ed said, "Great."

* * *

If there were decoding spells that turned screeching into sound, neither Ed nor Al could find them. 

Winry meanwhile had looked into the lake and Ed didn't like what she found. In February it was only just above zero degrees and apart from an interesting flora it mainly held three things: 

Grindylows, a giant squid and a village of mer people. 

Mer people who's language sounded like screeching outside the water.

Ed liked the clue even less. "What do they mean: Too late it's gone and won't come back? If they take my research notes or my only photo of mom, I'll tear them limb from limb," Ed growled. 

"Then you better hide them with me," Al replied, but he too looked a little uneasy. There were few things either of them really valued but those few were precious.

* * *

Before they got really far into their research Christmas descended upon them and with it the Yule Ball. Winry excused herself early on to get ready and reappeared hours later in a blue short dress, still casting warming charms on every bit of clothing, before vanishing with a "See you later," through the fireplace. 

"I'm off too, I'm supposed to meet May in the entrance hall," Al said.

"Go ahead," Ed said with a sigh, mentally urging Tringham to get a move on as Ling and Lan-Fan practically floated past them, wearing matching floating silk robes with dragon patterns. 

And then finally Tringham showed up. Ed had to admit he still cleaned up nice. 

"Let's go," Ed said and Tringham nodded, following him into the fire place and out of the fire that still burned merrily on the Hogwarts grounds.

"Why didn't we put the fire closer to the castle?" Tringham grumbled.

"Good question," Ed replied, shoulders hunching against the biting cold until they could slip into the waiting warmth, right behind the full contingent of Durmstrang students.

"Champions over here, please," Professor McGonnagal said, "Mr Elric, where is your partner?"

Ed pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Tringham. Her eyebrows raised for a moment, but she caught herself and nodded. Ed let it go, looking around instead, hoping to catch a glance of Al or Winry. 

It only took a moment to spot Al with this May girl and Ed could at least approve of the way she was looking at Al. As if he was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her. 

Next to him Tringham gave a long suffering sigh. "She's over there," he said, pointing to the other end of the hall where Winry was standing with one of the Weasley twins.

* * *

The hall really was magnificent but Ed would have been happier if he could have sat with Al and Winry instead of the top table. Of course sitting here meant he was at the same table as Roy, but since the judges all sat together, Ed was stuck at the other end, too far to hold a comfortable conversation.

Fleur, as usual it seemed, wasn't happy with Hogwarts, but considering Beauxbaton seemed to be situated in a palace instead of a castle Ed wasn't all that surprised. Viktor Krum on the other hand seemed positively lively and excited for the first time Ed had seen him, while Harry seemed to struggle paying attention to yet another redheaded Weasley talking to him about the ministry. Cedric and his own date seemed quite absorbed in each other. That left Ed with Tringham. 

He thought for a moment what topic was least likely for them to come to blows over and finally decided to just talk shop. "So how's the plant alchemy coming along?"

Tringham smirked at that, but then really did recount his latest discovery.

* * *

"Remember, I get to lead," Tringham said with a grin when they finally stepped onto the dance floor.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Just don't get used to it."

It was more fun than Ed had expected and they stayed on the dance floor for a few more songs, before going separate ways. Ed moved to the side and watched Al twirl May around, both of them smiling like the other had hung the moon and stars. On the other end of the floor Winry and her date - Ed still wasn't sure which twin it was - were doing something that looked like a danger to life and limb, but if the way Winry was laughing was anything to go by, they had fun. 

Ling and Lan-Fan cut an impressive figure too and beyond it Tringham seemed to have found one of the Durmstrang boys to dance with. And there, in the middle, Mustang was dancing with Professor McGonnagal. 

Ed felt a twinge of jealousy, but resolutely pushed it down. 

Maybe he'd see if he could steal Al or Winry for a dance later on.

And then the song ended and Ling showed up out of nowhere, dragging Ed back towards the dance floor, completely ignoring his protests. By the end of it Ed only just refrained from punching him and if the smug grin on Ling's face was anything to go by he was well aware of it.

* * *

"Having fun?" Roy asked, startling Ed from his thoughts. He had seriously contemplated leaving, if only to stop girls and even some boys from asking him to dance. Ed wasn't a fan of being sociable with strangers. He barely tolerated his class mates.

"It's better than I expected," Ed replied, grin spreading over his face against his will. "Better now of course."

Roy flashed him an amused grin. Ed liked those days when Roy took his flirting in stride instead of warning him off. He never reciprocated but then again, Ed didn't really expect him to. Ed was still a student, playing with the line was fine, crossing it was just asking for trouble.

"What about you?" Ed asked. 

"McGonnagal is a fantastic dancer," Roy replied, "I would have asked Madame Maxime, but her dance card seems quite full."

Ed tried to picture Roy dancing with Madame Maxime and nearly snorted. Seeing her dance with Dumbledore had already been funny and Mustang was even shorter.

For a moment both of them looked over the dance floor and Ed's gaze caught once again on Al and May who were now swaying close together. 

"You should take a few of those offers to dance," Roy said, "It won't kill you to have some fun tonight."

Ed sighed. "Maybe." He'd much rather dance with Roy, but he knew what the answer would be. 

"Good night, Fullmetal." Ed looked back at Roy, but he was already vanishing into the crowd. 

With a sigh Ed went to see if he could spirit Winry away from her partner for a dance.

* * *

"Look at this!" Al called, excitedly pushing a book into Ed's hand that looked old and quite worn. "Remember our potions attempt with the griffin claw where we couldn't figure out how to get the acidity down without rendering it useless?"

That particular attempt at a nerve restoring potion had started promising enough, but a potion that melts your insides when you drink it, no matter what other properties it had, wasn't exactly useful.

Ed looked at the page Al had opened, detailing the different properties of boomslang skin, depending on the way of preparation. They had dismissed boomslang skin early on for that particular potion, since it didn't react well with their base ingredients and... Ed stopped when his gaze landed on the second to last preparation method and his eyes widened when he realized it was alchemical.

"Whoever came up with that idea, I'm not sure if they were insane or a genius," Ed said. 

"Both?" Al suggested and there was something in his expression, two parts wary, one part excitement.

Ed felt the same. It was the first really solid lead they had found in a while, but a lead didn't mean they would actually pull this off. Still...

"The boomslang skin will counter the acid and add another restorative property," Ed said.

"I'll go over it, see how this changes the reaction."

"Me too. We can compare notes after. And we need to figure out when to add it. Too soon and it will cancel out the dragonfly wings."

"We'll need to adjust the heat too, but I don't think the eel eye will like that."

"Damn it," Ed muttered and pulled out a new parchment to start his calculations.

* * *

"We're taking a break," Al said.

"What?"

"A break. You, me, Winry. Break. At the lake. Preferably so that we can figure out how to get back whatever they take within an hour."

Ed rubbed his temples. Between their new potion experiment, homework, NEWT preparations and the Tournament he hadn't had a free minute in practically forever. 

"Come on," Winry said, "We need to at least experiment with how casting underwater influences your spells. We need to figure out what temperature the warming charms need, how my prosthesis react to being immersed in water for longer than a shower and finally we need to figure out how to propel you forward."

"This would be so much easier with gillyweed," Ed muttered.

"If you had both arms and legs maybe," Winry replied, "But with only one webbed foot and arm you'd probably take more time correcting course than actually swimming." 

"All right, fine," Ed conceded, "We'll try the bubble head charm first, see how it goes."

* * *

The morning of the task Ed's mood was rapidly plummeting. 

Winry hadn't shown up to breakfast or to wish him luck and no-one had seen her since last evening. And if Ed wanted to be at the task he couldn't go looking for her. 

"We can ask Colonel Mustang," Al said, "He'd know if she came in last night."

Ed nodded. Mustang would also have started a search if Winry hadn't shown up last night. She was around somewhere. Probably working out some last minute idea. 

"Come on, let's go. The lake is waiting for no-one and we'll see Roy down there."

Roy was indeed down there. As were the other champions, except Harry. Ed hadn't seen the kid at breakfast, but then again, he'd had other worries so he could be wrong. And it wasn't his problem anyway. Harry had the Gryffindors and a slew of teachers to help him survive this. He shrugged it off.

There was still no sign of Winry, so he walked up to Roy. 

"Winry's missing," he said instead of a greeting. 

Al elbowed him in the side. "Good morning, Colonel." 

"Good morning," Roy replied pointedly, before turning to Ed "And I know where Miss Rockbell is. Worry about the task first, Fullmetal."

"I haven't seen Cho at breakfast," Cedric suddenly chimed in, his voice filled with dread, "She was supposed to meet me, wish me luck, but she never showed up."

Ed's stomach sank as he turned to the others. "What about you, anyone missing who should be here?"

"I haven't seen Hermyoninny, yet," Krum said, "But I've also not seen Harry."

"My father and sister were going to see the task, but I've not seen either of them yet," Fleur added. 

Ed closed his eyes and turned around to Roy. "Tell me you didn't."

"Too late it's gone, it won't come back," Cedric said, "She's not an it!" His voice was sharp.

And Ed felt the anger rising when he looked at the judges. At Roy. 

Roy looked back at him steadily. "I assure you Fullmetal, I would never kidnap your sister, nor allow someone else to do it."

Ed closed his eyes and tried to reign his temper in. He trusted Roy. So maybe he got it wrong. Maybe they hadn't taken Winry. He pressed his lips together, let Al's hand on his shoulder steady him further. 

What had Roy said exactly? It was all word games with him, so what had he said? And what hadn't he said? He hadn't said where Wirny was, just that he knew where. He hadn't said that she wasn't under the lake. He had said she wasn't kidnapped, but that still left Winry agreeing to go down there. 

Winry wasn't stupid. She wouldn't have agreed unless she knew it was safe. 

And Roy would never, ever let anything happen to a student. Ed had seen that first hand when he arrived on the scene after Ed's Never Again Assignment had gone to hell. 

He opened his eyes. 

"All right, but if she's harmed..." 

Al squeezed his shoulder. "I'll be right beside him," he promised. Calm, steady and ready to raze the castle to the ground if he had to. And people thought Ed was the dangerous one.

"Of course," Roy replied, "But we are about to begin, so I suggest Alphonse finds a place with the rest of the spectators."

"Harry isn't here yet," Dumbledore said with a frown. 

"If he isn't here on time, we'll have to start without him," the Weasley who had apparently taken over for Crouch said. He seemed awfully young for the job. Was their department that understaffed?

"Now, don't be too hasty," Bagman said nervously.

Ed rolled his eyes and checked the clock. Three minutes. Al squeezed his shoulder again. "Be safe. Bring her home."

Ed nodded and Al walked over to where the other students had found their places. 

"There he is," Cedric said and Ed tore his gaze from Al's retreating back to look to the castle where Harry was running down the path.

"Good, good," Bagman said, "In that case, Mr Elric, move over there, Miss Delacour, if you would..."

Ed ignored the rest, going over his spells one last time. He'd be fine. He breathed. 

The sound of a whistle paired with a sonorus charm echoed over the water. 

Ed cast the warming charms, waded in, cast the bubblehead charm and dove under. 

Nearly instantly every sound was swallowed by the waves, light turning greenish, dimming where it got deeper.

He could see Fleur and Cedric starting to dive with bubblehead charms of their own, Krum was half shark, which was admittedly an ingenious solution. Then Harry dove down, sporting webbed fingers and feet. Gillyweed. 

Ed had to pause to put featherlight charms on his prosthesis and then took a stone from the ground and transfigured it into a compass. He knew the mer people village was to the north east from here.

By now all the other's had vanished from sight. Ed pointed his wand behind himself. 

"Aguamentia."

His wand shot out a stream of water, propelling him in the other direction. Less powerful than a jet engine, but still enough. He kept close to the surface where enough light filtered in to see, not that there was much to see. A few fish here or there, the landscape too far down to make out details.

He had no idea how far he'd come when suddenly something big and dark rose directly before him. Ed froze for half a second, but then stopped the aguamentia spell and pointed his wand forward.

It took another two heartbeats before he could even make out what it was. Long body, eight arms, two tentacles, a giant eye staring up at him. He had read about the giant squid but seeing it was something else entirely.

The squid was supposed to be harmless, but Ed really wasn't sure how to react. On the other hand, he couldn't exactly afford a delay. The squid came closer and closer and Ed contemplated a stunning spell, but as long as it's tentacles didn't reach for him he didn't want to antagonize it either. Still closer. And then it stopped, about an arm length away, eye directly in front of Ed, just staring at him. 

Ed took a nervous breath and then carefully tried to swim around it. It turned with him, around and around. Just as Ed was about to get far enough away to use the aguamentia again, its tentacles moved. Ed tensed but they didn't come towards him, instead pointing past his feet and a little to the left.

Ed wasn't exactly sure if that meant what he thought it meant, but a glance at his compass confirmed that it was the right direction. And from the time it had taken to get here it might even be time to go down as it had indicated.

He wasn't sure if the thing understood him but he nodded at it. "Thank you."

He pointed his wand and cast aguamentia again, this time starting to dive deeper. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the lake was big and when they had dived down to test it out, even after knowing where it was, it had taken them about half an hour to get to the mer people. And that was without meeting the giant squid.

That's when he heard the tune.

"...your time's soon gone, so tarry not,  
lest what you seek stays here to rot..."

Ed's stomach churned, but he reminded himself that Roy would never let anything happen to Winry, no matter what the song implied. 

Stone dwellings came into view. One or two mer-people were looking at him, equal parts wild, scary and beautiful. Also definitely dangerous, because they navigated a lot faster than Ed did.

But no-one made a move to stop him as he followed the song to a giant statue with five hostages bound to its tail.

And Harry Potter was there, hacking away at one of the bindings with a sharp rock.

Ed didn't bother and cast a severing charm right under Winry's foot. The algae rope turned out to be surprisingly resilient, but another two severing charms solved the problem. 

He gripped Winry tightly and made to cast another aguamentia to get to the surface, but then hesitated when the mer people suddenly descended on Harry, pulling him away from Hermione. Ron was already floating free.

"Hey," he shouted, but he wasn't sure how much they would understand when the sound had to travel through the air-water barrier, "Hands off the kid!" He sent a few sparks in warning, not really prepared to fight all those mer people unless they actually did anything more dangerous than holding Harry back.

A few of them eyed him warily, but no-one made a move to let Harry go. 

Ed cursed and then used his wand to write: "They won't die." Flashing his wand brightly to get Harry's attention.

Harry stilled, but didn't look convinced and Ed cursed again because they didn't have time for this. What would convince Harry? 

That was when Cedric showed up, looking confused when he saw the words still floating in the water and Harry surrounded by mer people.

And then, thankfully, Cedric pointed at the words and nodded emphatically. 

Harry gave a reluctant nod in return and Ed breathed a little easier, pulled Winry tighter to himself and cast another aguamentia, propelling them to the surface. Up, up, up. 

And then cold air bit into his skin. Winry spluttered, grabbing for Ed the second her head passed the surface. "Well, waking up in the water is not disconcerting at all."

"That's what you get for volunteering for this shit," Ed replied moodily, casting a warming charm at her robes, "Come on, let's get out of this."

"Are you first?" Winry asked, looking around, but then held on to Ed when he once again cast an aguamentia to propel them towards the shore.

"Harry and Cedric should be right behind me. Haven't seen Fleur and Krum since the start," Ed replied.

True to his word the surface broke somewhere behind them and Ed caught a glance at Cedric and his Yule Ball date. 

Finally they got ground under their feet and Ed cancelled the featherlight charm on his prosthesis, so he could walk normally again. 

The next second Al was running towards them, ducking under Bagman's arm when he tried to stop him, splashing water left and right and then throwing his arms around both of them. 

"We're fine," Ed whispered but held on just as tight.

"We're fine," Wirny agreed, "And I'm sorry for scaring you like that, but better me than Al."

Ed went cold at the idea of Al tied down there and it took a second to realize he had to let off his vice grip on his brother, before he could cause bruises.

"Right. Come on, let's get out of the water." Mainly Al needed to get out, because he wouldn't even feel that he was cold. Maybe soon, if the nerve healing potion really worked, but that didn't help now.

"Congratulations, Fullmetal," Roy said, stepping up to them as soon as they were completely out of the water, handing blankets to Ed and Winry, "But what took you so long?"

"I met the giant squid," Ed replied, "And then had to argue with our youngest champion."

Roy raised an eyebrow. Ed shook his head because looking around he couldn't see Harry. Fleur was there arguing loudly in French and if Ed wasn't mistaken, she was afraid. Her hostage had still been down there and Ed winced in sympathy. He wasn't sure he'd take that well either, especially since her hostage seemed to have been a little girl.

Then their mediwitch was there, pressing a potion into his and Winry's hand. "Drink. It'll warm you right up." She reminded him too much of Granny to refuse, so he swallowed it in two gulps and then shuddered as heat flooded him and steam shot from his ears. 

"I hate pepper up potion," Ed muttered, trying to ignore the tingling in his ears from all that steam rushing through. Winry just laughed and downed her own.

Shouts from the stands alerted him that something was happening and he turned around, seeing Krum and Hermione swim towards the shore. Still no Harry. Ed had a sinking feeling that they hadn't convinced him that the hostages were safe. 

Minutes crept by and Ed was starting to get nervous. Gillyweed only worked so long. 

And then finally the surface broke again and there was Harry with Ron and the girl. 

Ed leaned against Al and closed his eyes. He was just glad it was over and they had months until the next task. 

It took a while to award points. Ed had gotten full marks for arriving a minute before the time limit was up, but surprisingly Harry and Cedric tied for second place because Harry showed moral fibre.


	4. The Third Task

"It's solid on paper," Ed said. That should be good news, but after so many years of searching for a cure he didn't quite trust this not to fall apart like all their other ideas. Then again, they'd never gotten that far before.

"So we're doing this," Al said, sounding a little unsure himself, "We really start brewing."

"We need the ingredients first," Ed replied, "And we'll have to test it, before..." Before giving it to Al. 

"Not to mention this needs two weeks of uninterrupted brewing time," Winry said, looking over their notes, "Unless you want to say screw your NEWTs, you'll have to wait until school's over."

Ed nodded. "Yeah, that too."

"Some of those ingredients aren't cheap," Al added with a frown. 

Winry looked it over again. "We can probably do it, especially if seeing your prosthesis in action brings us a few new customers. Hey, maybe Professor Moody would like a better leg. I've been itching to replace it."

Ed snorted, then shook his head. "Or I win the stupid tournament. A thousand galleons should cover the cost."

"That would do it," Winry said, "Just don't take stupid risks to get it. If push comes to shove we can take a loan."

"She's right, Ed," Al replied, "Don't get reckless."

"Al..." Ed said

"I mean it, Ed. I need you safe more than I need to get my senses back."

"Fine," Ed sighed.

* * *

Winry wrote to Granny about the potion and the cost of ingredients.

Al had probably tried to write to their useless excuse for a father again if the dejected slump in his shoulders each morning without an owl was anything to go by.

And Ed... well, there was only one person Ed really wanted to tell.

"We might have a cure for Al," he said, letting his head hang down backwards over the couch so he could look at Roy. 

Roy smiled, one of his rare real smiles that made Ed feel special just for knowing he had caused it. "Congratulations, Fullmetal."

"Thank you." A pause, "Flame."

Roy rolled his eyes, but still smiled. Ed grinned in answer. He should probably quit while he was ahead, but that had never really been his style. "So, how about we go for coffee when Al is cured?" 

The smile slipped. "There are rules, Fullmetal."

"There won't be rules when I graduate," Ed replied. 

"You'll have to survive long enough to graduate first. Keep your mind on the Tournament."

"But if I do survive, will you go out with me?"

"And we are back to the start. Rules, Fullmetal. I thought your memory wouldn't be that short."

"Who are you calling short you insufferable bastard?" Ed growled, "And stop trying to derail the conversation."

Roy's face turned blank. "You're like a dog with a bone. Let it go."

"I would, but all you ever say is rules this and rules that when a simple I'm not interested would do the trick."

Roy stilled completely. 

Ed sighed. "I won't ask again before I graduate, but when that happens I want an actual answer, so you better think about what you're going to say." He walked out before Roy could do something stupid like actually say no.

* * *

And then, a month before the third task they got their information: A maze full of traps. 

Ed shook his head. At least there wasn't much extra work he'd have to do beforehand. Most of what he'd need he'd be revising for his NEWTs anyway. Except a bit more on magical creatures. And, well...

"Any rules about going over or through those hedges?"

Bagman smirked. "You can certainly try."

* * *

"Hey, Tringham!" Ed called as he crossed through the common room.

"What do you want?" Tringham called back.

"Can you figure out what kind of hedge this is," he handed him a twig he'd cut from the maze, "And how you would stop someone from going through it?"

Over was probably a matter of wards. Under too. But under would also take a ridiculous amount of magic. Too much to use it all the way to the centre.

"Huh," Tringham muttered, peering closer at it, "What's this going to be, a maze?"

"Yep."

"Hm. They're magic resistant and with the right spells they're also fire proof. Don't try cutting or slicing through, that'd take forever. If you had to, you could probably use a reductor curse. With enough power you'd get a hole to climb through. Fiendfire would do it too, but not even you are that crazy."

"Damn it," Ed muttered, "Thanks."

"Whatever," Tringham replied.

* * *

Right now Ed envied the other champions who were exempt from exams. Problem was, no-one could skip NEWTs. He had the option of doing them later, but that would just postpone the inevitable and he'd have to keep all this stuff fresh in his mind until then. He'd declined. Might as well get it over with. Still, right now he seriously doubted his own decision.

Or maybe he just wanted to murder whichever person had decided it was a good idea to schedule NEWTs for the days right before the third task. Or maybe it was the other way around and they had scheduled the third task to be after the NEWTs. Either way Ed was not in the mood for this. 

"You are never in the mood for exams," Winry muttered, "Stop whining." 

Al just rolled his eyes and rubbed at his face and the dark shadows under his eyes. "That's enough for today. Bed everyone."

Ed hesitated. On one hand, fuck yes he was tired. On the other, they still had four more exams to go and he wanted to be as prepared as he could be. Tomorrow would be Charms in the morning and Transfiguration in the afternoon. The day after would be Alchemy and Arithmancy. 

"Fine." And afterwards he'd sleep for a week. 

Oh wait, the day after that was the fucking third task. Ed was going to murder someone.

* * *

"Come on, finish your breakfast. Granny is here!" Winry said. 

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Jeez." 

This was what he was doing instead of sleeping the sleep of the rightfully exhausted. NEWTs went well. Probably. And he deserved a break, damn it. But here he was, bright and early, because the champions families were coming to see the task. 

Not that he wasn't happy to see Granny, he was. He was just tired and maybe the sligthest bit on edge because of the third task. 

He followed Winry to the side room, where the families were waiting for them, though why they couldn't just join them for breakfast was anyones guess.

There were a lot of people in the room and most of them were easy to connect to the respective champions, except for a pair of yet more redheads. They had probably adopted Harry, now that he thought about it. He was distracted when Winry caught sight of Granny, squealed and then ran at her with full speed, throwing her arms around her. Ed and Al followed at a more sedate pace. 

"So, how are you holding up?" Granny asked. 

"Fine," Ed replied. It was only partly a lie. On the one hand, so far they hadn't thrown anything at him that he couldn't handle. On the other hand, at least with the first two tasks he had known exactly what to prepare for.

"Good," Granny replied, "Then let's find a quiet place and Winry can show me her newest upgrades to your prosthesis."

"I could be sleeping right now," Ed muttered, but gestured for her to follow him anyway.

"We all could," Al countered with a grin.

Ed sighed, but didn't protest. This was Granny's way of making sure he was as prepared as she could make him. Not to mention he really had missed her. Her and her no nonsense attitude. There was already enough nonsense going around.

* * *

Ed breathed evenly, hoping to calm his nerves as he stared at the maze. He had the most points, but it wouldn't give him more than a minute head start. He'd have to be fast if he wanted to win.

Right. 

Whistle.

Ed started running, took a left turn, then a right one, another right. Dead end. Turned left instead.

Another whistle. That would be Harry. Gotta hand it to the kid. For being fourteen he'd put up a good fight. Might be a bit embarrassing losing to him, but then again, he was good and those points were well earned.

Ed shook the thought off, looked around the next corner and recoiled when he saw one of the creatures the Magical Creatures professor had had his students drag over the grounds for half the school year. From up at the zeppelin they had seemed tiny if vicious and watching the students struggle had been fun.

From up close Ed was glad he had never taken that class.

Right. Nothing for it.

He rounded the corner and fired a bombarda at the ground beneath its feet, propelling it backwards. It landed on its back and Ed hastily had to conjure a shield because it blasted fire from its rear end, making it slide further up the path. 

Oh what the hell. Ed transfigured a giant stone hand that lifted the thing up, bottom first, so all it would be able to hit was the sky, then walked under it.

Ed took another two corners before once again ending up in a dead end. 

He could have turned around, but if his sense of direction wasn't too far off, this was the direction he needed to take. Well, time to test a few theories. 

He tried the reducto first, but Tringham had been right, all he got was a small hole, barely enough to squeeze through. Better than nothing, but potentially more time consuming than finding another way. He pushed his head through, then his arms and finally awkwardly pulled the rest of him through.

Yep. Definitely not something to be tried too often. He could always test going over next.

He rounded a corner and froze when he saw Al lying on the ground, eight years old, their father's wand on the ground, their mother's body half decayed behind him. Only this Al wasn't moving. He'd been unconscious, but his chest had lifted and Ed had clung to that. This was a nightmare. 

Actually, this was his literal nightmare. Al wasn't eight any more. 

The scene morphed. It was just Al now, the way Ed had seen him not twenty minutes ago, but he still wasn't moving, wasn't breathing.

But Al was in the stands, waiting for Ed to come back, not here. So what made you see your nightmares?

Oh. 

"Ridiculus."

Al's chest lifted and black lines like whiskers appeared on his face, like there had been when he'd fallen asleep after the last victory party. Someone, probably Tringham or Ling had also drawn a dick on his cheek and Ed managed a snort, before striding past.

Of course that was when he heard the scream. Fleur. Damn it. He hoped she had managed to shoot up sparks. 

He made it past another two intersections when he encountered the mist. Ed grimaced. He could probably figure out exactly what it did, but that would take time he didn't have. What he did know was that this was supposed to be an obstacle, therefore it could be passed.

Ed took a deep breath and walked right in.

The world flipped upside down, he was literally hanging from the ground, his hair dangling towards the sky. Fuck. 

As far as spell work went this was ridiculously complicated. Gravity reversion but with an exception for his feet, for which the gravity still pointed the right way with much more force to make sure he wouldn't just float into the sky.

Ed pointed his wand at his feet and transfigured the ground to grab hold of his feet. Then he transfigured a handhold a little further and resolutely swung himself up towards it, grabbing on with his prosthesis. 

Only for the world to right itself, letting him crash awkwardly into the ground.

Right. He was just glad Winry hadn't seen that. Or Roy for that matter. 

He undid the transfiguration to get his feet free and got up.

Next intersection. Another dead end. 

Ed shrugged, then transfigured the ground into stairs leading up to the top of the hedge.

He got just far enough to stretch his head over the hedge when gravity suddenly flipped again. Ed cursed and pulled his head down and cursed again when his stomach churned as the world went right side up again.

All right. Unless he wanted to dismantle that spell, he probably shouldn't try going over the maze. Fucking hell.

Then he heard screaming again, a male voice and it didn't stop. Fuck. Fuck!

Could he get there? Maybe if he cut his way in that direction. 

Right. He crouched low and cast a reducto, then crawled through the hole, only to end up face to face with with a Hippogriff. Damn. All right. Eye contact. But he was also still half in the hole and bowing didn't exactly work while already on hands and knees. 

Ed took a deep breath. He could turn around, but the screams were still coming, turning Ed's stomach.

Nothing for it. He'd crawl through first and hope to god or whatever that the Hippogriff wouldn't attack before he was free of the hedge.

He held his breath, held eye contact and carefully crawled forwards. The Hippogriff was much too close for comfort and moved its wings agitatedly. If it reared up Ed could only hope that his prosthesis would hold under those hooves. Another bit and then his legs were through and Ed rose, ever so slowly.

The wings lifted threateningly and Ed froze, then bowed from his half upright position, gritted his teeth at the continued screaming, held his position. He mentally went through spells that might take out a Hippogriff. In the distance, the screaming stopped. 

The Hippogriff neighed. Another heartbeat, then its wings lowered and it bowed in return.

Ed let out a breath and carefully backed away from it, didn't even dare take his eyes off it until he was around the next corner, then looked around and up. There were two sets of sparks in the sky. Ed breathed a little easier. Sparks meant teachers were coming and someone had been well enough to shoot them.

Still, that hadn't sounded good. How had anyone decided that this was supervised enough to make sure no-one was dying? Oh wait. This was designed as a death trap for Harry Potter. He just hoped the organizers had taken that serious and upped their security. 

With a sigh he chose a direction that would hopefully lead to the middle. Light was fading now, but he wasn't sure if that was because of yet another charm or because night was falling. Not much he could do either way, dismantling charms like that took more than a finite incantatem.

Another corner. Another one of those giant naked crab things, but this time Ed went directly for the giant stone hand, then walked past it.

Another corner, a swarm of little winged things, making right for him. Doxies. Ed cast an immobilus and hastened his steps. 

Another corner. And a glimpse of gold. Ed started running.

"On your left!"

Ed had about half a second to connect the shout to the intersection in front of him and threw himself sideways into the hedge, letting the branches catch his momentum, before throwing him back and to the ground, just as a gigantic spider shot out from the path right in front of him. An accrumantula.

For a second Ed just stared. At least with the dragons there had been handlers to step in, but this was another class five beast with no help in sight. If Harry hadn't called Ed might well be dead. 

The spider was on him before he could even get his wand up, only to be hit by a "Stupefy." 

Then "Impedimenta! Stupefy!" The spider jerked and turned her attention on Harry instead. 

Ed cursed, managed to turn around and transfigured another giant stone fist that grabbed the spider and lifted it off the ground. It shrieked but it had also managed to grab Harry. Damn it.

"Expeliarmus!" Harry shouted and to Ed's surprise the spider let go. Ed only just managed a cushioning charm to catch him. 

The spider shrieked again, held only just over Harry's head where he had landed on the ground. 

The fingers of the fist creaked dangerously.

"That won't hold it forever, get a move on, kid," Ed shouted.

Harry crawled forwards until he was far enough that he could stand, but he needed the hedge to hold him up.

"Take it," Harry said, looking past Ed.

Ed turned around. The Cup was right there. Still. "Yeah, no. I'm not leaving you with a giant Acrumantula that could free itself any moment. Especially not after you just saved my ass."

"You saved me too. The spider would have come after me once it was finished with you and all my spells did was piss it off."

"More moving, less arguing," Ed replied and pulled Harry's arm over his shoulder, "The thing's a portkey to the start of the maze. We'll take it to safety and the judges can argue out who won later."

"Doesn't that just make it a shared victory?" Harry asked.

"500 galleons is enough for what I need, the rest never mattered," Ed replied as he helped Harry the last metres over to the cup.

"All right," Harry said, "On three. One - two - three."

There was a tug behind his navel, colors flashed and then Ed's feet hit the ground and the lack of noise and light put all of Ed's instincts on high alert. Roy would have told him if the portkey would sent them somewhere else. Once again he was reminded that part of this Tournament had been designed as a trap for Harry. And apparently they'd walked right into it. 

No movement though, so he pulled Harry to his feet.

"Where are we?" the kid asked. 

"Doesn't matter, we need to get the fuck away from here," Ed replied, glancing over a few headstones that could hide who knew what in their shadows. "If we're lucky the portkey was just tempered with, not completely reprogrammed, then the next stop would be where we were meant to go."

"Wait. Someone's coming," Harry said.

Ed tensed. Someone small and cloaked was walking towards them and if it hadn't been for the bundle they carried Ed would have just stupefied them and apologized later if they were an innocent passer-by, but the bundle looked like a baby, so Ed couldn't risk it. He still pointed his wand though. "Don't move. Identify yourself."

The figure stopped. 

And then Harry screamed and fell to the ground and the person said: "Kill the spare."

"Avada-"

Ed threw himself to the side, green flashing past him, his pulse suddenly thundering in his ear. Another jet of green and Ed only just managed to pull a wall up between himself and the cloaked guy. On the ground Harry was retching now, hand pressed to his head.

Ed jumped from behind his wall, just before it exploded under a bombarda, deflected a yellow jet of light that followed and then sent a stunner of his own.

"Hurry, you fool," a cold voice said from the little bundle. 

"I'm trying, Master!"

Ed ducked behind a headstone as another green jet of light passed by, then transfigured a stone fist, waited for the inevitable bombarda to blow it up and promptly banished all the debris at the guy, then added a stunner. In answer he got another killing curse.

Just then Harry shot a stunner of his own and Ed followed suit with an incarcerus.

A rustling was all the warning he got and he whirled around arm instinctively going up to shield his body, just as a giant snake propelled itself at him and sank its teeth into his raised arm, throwing him down under the force. 

For maybe a second he fought to get his arm back as the prosthesis creaked under the unnatural force of those teeth, then he remembered his wand and fired a reductor, followed with a diffindo and a bombarda when it was thrown back.

A glance at the guy showed him trading spells with Harry and Ed threw a stunner in.

The bundle shrieked where it had been abandoned on the ground. Ed only grimaced at the sound, but Harry once again fell to his knees. 

Ed shot a jelly fingers jinx at the guy, followed by an expeliarmus.

The guy managed to counter both and sent a red beam of light. 

Ed conjured a shield, then answered with a jet of fire, just as Harry threw an expeliarmus from where he had fallen to the ground.

The cloak fell to the ground as if it was empty and for a moment Ed could just stare. Then something moved on the ground and Ed shot another bombarda, just in case of any more snakes.

"Wormtail!" Harry shouted, "He's a rat. Look for the rat!"

Shit. Ed caught movement again and then the guy grew from the grass, right next to the bundle.

Harry shot a reducto, Ed another stunner, but the guy and the bundle vanished with a crack before either could hit.

For a moment Ed just stood panting, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.

Then he shook it off. "Portkey, now!"

"Yeah," Harry agreed and Ed jogged over to him and offered his shoulder for him to hold on to. He didn't dare let his wand down for even a second, half expecting the guy to appear again, but they got all the way to the Cup. Ed just hoped he was right and wouldn't have to side along Harry back to Hogwarts. He wasn't entirely sure he felt up to that. 

"On three," Ed whispered, "One - two - three."

Another tug, another swirl of colors.

And then the world exploded in sound as the schools cheered. Their names were chanted all too loud, too much movement on all sides, too many people to keep his eye on and someone here had helped, had redirected that portkey. 

Ed swayed, pressed his back against Harry's, kept his wand up, hoping that Harry was doing the same. People were walking towards them and Ed's gaze landed on Roy.

Roy's smile slipped as he met his gaze, sped up until he was running the last few steps.

"Ed, what..."

"Trap. The portkey was a trap. Someone here messed with it. We were never supposed to make it back."

"Voldemort was there. He was strange, but he was there and Wormtail. Pettigrew," Harry added.

Roy to his credit reacted immediately, his wand in his hand he scanned everyone around. "Stay close."

"Wasn't planning to go anywhere," Ed shot back.

"Voldemort, are you sure Harry," Dumbledore asked. 

"What kind of nonsense is this?" an older guy asked.

"Who had access to that Cup?" Roy asked. 

"We need to award the Triwizard Cup. A joint victory, that's totally unheard off!" the old guy chimed in again. Ed finally managed to place him as Britain's Minister for Magic. Name like some sweet. 

Dumbledore frowned. "Myself, as I needed to make it work within Hogwarts' wards. And Alastor..."

Roy pulled Ed down as a green jet of light shot through the crowd. Dumbledore moved to the side. The minister wasn't as lucky, his eyes dulled and then he collapsed backwards. 

Roy didn't hesitate, pushed Ed backwards with him as the crowd erupted in screams. Ed lost track of Harry.

Dumbledore fired spells in quick succession at Professor Moody, Roy shot a continuing jet of fire forcing the man to hold a shield. Dumbledore promptly used the opening to throw another volley of spells, two of which made it past that shield. 

The man collapsed and when Ed looked around the other teachers had managed to get a semblance of order into the fleeing masses. Well, some of the masses. Al burst from the crown, sprinting toward them, quickly followed by Winry, then Ron and Hermione and finally Granny.

Ed swayed and Roy's arm steadied him. "Are you all right? Are you injured?"

"I'm fine. Some bruises. Automail arm got bitten by a giant snake." He only then realized he was shaking. 

And then Al was there pulling him into a crushing hug. 

"You are back. You're safe."

Winry's arms closed around them both. Ed only vaguely heard Roy exchange a few words with Dumbledore, then: "All right you three, back to the zeppelin. I'd like to get all of us out of the open.

They moved, Al sticking so close they were bumping into each other with every step. Roy still had his wand in hand and Granny did the same. Winry and Al wordlessly followed their example.

They collected Ling and Lan-Fan on the way, then Tringham and his group and finally they reached the fire. 

One by one they took the floo street up to the zeppelin. 

"Ed, my office. Yes, your family can come," Roy said, preemptively stopping Al's and Granny's protest, "The rest of you can do what you want, but for now, don't leave the zeppelin."

Ed walked over to the office and sprawled on the couch. Al rolled his eyes, then nudged him over so he had room as well. Winry shoved both of them so she had room on his other side, effectively bracketing Ed in. Ed wasn't sure if he wanted to protest or hold on to them and never let go.

Granny smiled and conjured herself a chair. 

A moment later Roy followed them in. "I need to know what happened. Mr Potter said something about Voldemort?"

"I don't know if it was him," Ed replied, "He didn't exactly introduce himself, you'd have to ask Harry how he came to that conclusion."

Roy nodded. "What happened?"

"We ended up on a cemetery," Ed said, "I knew that was wrong, but before we could try the portkey again someone came. He was cloaked and held a bundle that looked like a baby. Then the bundle ordered the man to kill me and we started to duel while Harry collapsed. Looked as if he was in pain, but if a spell was fired I didn't see it."

Ed shook his head. "At one point a giant snake showed up and attacked me, but luckily by then Harry was well enough to keep the man distracted. I got rid of the snake, we double teamed the guy and then he vanished. Harry realized he had turned into a rat, but before we could stop him he returned to human form, grabbed the talking bundle and disapparated. We took the portkey back and you know the rest."

Roy nodded. "All right. I'll see if I can get more information from Dumbledore. Until then, don't leave the zeppelin. It's very well warded so you don't need to worry about anyone coming in here."

And just like that he was gone.

Ed sagged against Al and let his scent of home sooth him into believing that everything was going to be just fine.


	5. Starts And Endings

The others had long since succumbed to sleep when Ed heard the fireplace flare. It was probably Roy coming back from figuring out what was going on, but Ed still tensed, hand going to his wand. It was only when he could see that it really was Roy passing by the common room door, that he could let his grip on his wand relax.

Ed hesitated for a second, but he couldn't sleep anyway, so he carefully moved Al from where he had slumped against Ed's shoulder and pulled him down so he could lay flat on the couch. Granny had the other couch and Winry had transfigured the carpet into a mattress. The rest of the students had had the sense to find their actual beds.

Ed silently moved out of the common room and to Roy's office. The door was ajar, but the room beyond it was dark. Ed had been sure Roy had come here, but maybe not? He knocked hesitantly.

"Come in." He sounded tired. Ed searched the dark until he found movement in the shadows, caught a glimpse of a silhouette against the window.

For a moment Ed thought about casting a lumos, but if Roy wanted light he would have made light, so he walked in without it, let his memory of the room guide him until his eyes adjusted to the dim light. 

He wasn't entirely sure what to do with this. For all that Ed was in love with Roy, he knew that the man he usually talked to and the one hidden behind the professional distance weren't entirely the same. This wasn't professional though, and the prospect of a glimpse behind the mask made his heart beat faster.

Ed carefully moved around the desk, let his fingers trail on its edge to keep himself oriented in the dark until he reached the window. From here he could see over the grounds to the lake, stars reflecting on its surface. From the right light spilled over the grounds, but the castle itself was out of view. 

The silence stretched surprisingly comfortable between them, but Ed could never quite shake the feeling of knowing Roy close enough to touch.

"You scared me," Roy finally said and Ed let the emotion in his voice crash into his chest, twisting. 

"Sorry," his whispered. 

Roy shook his head. "It's not your fault."

Ed shrugged. That fight in the graveyard hadn't gone completely wrong, considering both he an Harry had made it out relatively unscathed and he could say, objectively, that most of what had happened when they got back had been out of his hands, but a man was dead all the same. And he still didn't know what had really happened. Who those people were. What the fuck had been up with that freaky talking baby bundle. 

"Professor Moody was a polyjuiced imposter," Roy said, voice quiet against the night. "The man was a death eater, just as the man you encountered in the cemetery. Mr Potter's belief that the bundle was Voldemort is due to the reaction of his scar, which apparently fits with previous encounters. I am inclined to believe him."

So the stories that Voldemort was dead had been exaggerated. A detached part of his mind was morbidly amused at how many modern history books now would have to bring out new and corrected editions.

"The imposter has been transferred to prison. Interim Minister of Magic for Britain is Undersecretary Umbridge. I relayed your statement to their Aurors."

Good. Ed hadn't looked forward to talking to them himself. 

"How is Harry?" His leg had been messed up and whatever the presence of Voldemort had done to his scar had looked beyond painful.

"Expected to make a full recovery," Roy replied, "He's spending the night in the infirmary."

Something in Ed relaxed that he hadn't even realized had been tense. "Thanks."

Silence settled again, and then: "How are you holding up?"

"I..." Ed hesitated. He had no idea what he was even feeling. "Winry and Granny repaired my prosthesis." He held his arm up and wriggled its fingers for emphasis. 

"And beyond that?" Roy asked gently. 

"Tired," Ed admitted, if only because that was the only emotion he was reasonably sure of. "Everything that happened is a jumbled mess in my head, details jumping out at me at random times." That wasn't new and it would stay like that for a long time. There were still days when events from the Never Again mission suddenly flashed through his mind, unwelcome reminders he'd rather forget. He didn't look forward to having more scenes in his minds arsenal.

"Speaking of, you should be sleeping."

"Not sure I can," Ed replied.

There was another stretch of silence and then Roy sighed. "Would you be willing to take a sleeping drought?"

Ed considered it. Sleeping potions and nightmares were a terrible combination, because depending on the dose he would not wake up. On the other hand, he really didn't want to be sleep deprived tomorrow.

"Maybe a low dose." Just enough to get him to sleep, not enough to keep him there.

"I'll get you something." Roy walked over to a cabinet to the side, wordlessly lighting up his wand as he went.

Ed caught a glance at a variety of medical potions, but then Roy pulled out a bottle with light blue liquid and closed it again.

"You know your dose?"

Ed nodded. 

"Then I'll trust you with this. Just bring it back in the morning."

Ed nodded again and turned to the door.

"Night, Roy."

"Good night."

He was nearly at the door, when: "Edward," Roy called and Ed turned around. Roy hesitated for a second, but then: "Yes."

Ed frowned. "Yes, what?"

"Yes, we can go for a coffee when you graduate."

Ed felt a grin bloom on his face. 

Roy answered with a soft smile.

"I'll hold you to that, don't think you'll get out of it now."

Roy smirked. "What gave you the impression that I'd want to?" Then he shook his head. "Go to sleep, Ed. We're not talking about this again until you graduate."

Ed didn't even care that he'd have to wait. Suddenly he felt light. "I'll wait." And it would be fucking worth it too.

"I know you will. Good night."

"Good night," Ed replied and finally closed the door behind himself. 

He took a breath. Took another. He was going on a date with Roy Mustang!

* * *

Ed was still tired the next morning. He had expected the nightmares, but that didn't help as he relived the snake lunging at him, Harry falling down in agony, the screams he had heard in the maze. That last one haunted him most when he woke up. He'd asked after Harry, but not the other champions. What had happened?

He tossed and turned for a while, but then gave up on sleep entirely, instead working on an alchemy project in the light of a lumos until dawn brightened the sky.

* * *

Roy gathered all of them in the common room before they could leave for breakfast.

"All persons connected to the sabotage of the Tournament that have been within Hogwarts have been caught, so you will be reasonably safe when you leave the zeppelin. That said, there is now reasonable doubt that the Dark Lord Voldemort is as dead as previously thought and he might make another attempt. I want you to treat this like you do any of your Never Again assignments. Do not go anywhere alone without someone knowing where you are. Here are your emergency portkeys, make sure you don't lose them, they'll bring you directly to my office."

Ed swallowed. Al pressed against his arm from the left, Winry from the right.

He took a look at the possible portkeys and then picked a pocket watch with the Amestrian coat of arms, clipped it to his belt and then let it vanish in his pocket. Winry chose a necklace, Al a badge. Every day items that wouldn't draw much attention.

"As much as I dislike leaving you here alone, I have a prosthesis to fit in an hour," Granny said, before they could go, "But I believe you are in good hands."

"I promise to protect them," Roy said and Granny held his gaze for a moment, before nodding.

Winry and Al hugged her and after a moments hesitation Ed did the same. Her arms were surprisingly strong considering she was old and tiny.

"See you next week," she said and activated her own portkey. 

Ed exchanged glances with Al and Winry, but then his gaze settled on Roy. "Just a second, yeah. I need to ask something."

Winry and Al nodded and he turned to Roy. "What happened to the other champions?"

Roy hesitated and Ed tensed. That wasn't good. Roy considered him for a second longer, but then sighed. "Miss Delacour was found stunned, but otherwise unharmed," Roy said, "Mr Krum had been put under the imperius to take out Harry's competition and hurt them in the process in the hopes of drawing more of you in to help. He put Mr Diggory through the cruciatus."

Ed felt sick. How long had he heard screaming? Too long. Much too long for a good outcome.

"Mr Diggory will also make a full recovery," Roy interrupted, "Mr Krum fought the imperious enough to lessen the damage and Mr Potter eventually stunned him."

Ed managed a nod. Right. All right. 

"Now off to breakfast, you three."

Ed let Winry grasp his hand and pull him to the fireplace, but it took Al nudging their shoulders together for him to finally get those screams out of his head.

"Let's just take it easy today," Al suggested.

Ed nodded. He didn't know when the last time was that he'd taken it easy for a whole day. Maybe during the last summer holidays?

There was an official announcement at breakfast about what had happened, that Voldemort was not dead. There were too many eyes on him, on Harry. The full brood of redheads as well as Hermione had rallied around Harry at least.

Al and Winry did the same for him, blocking him from curious stares. What he hadn't really expected was Ling and Lan-Fan sitting down a bit to their right, ignoring them mostly, but still effectively blocking access from that side. Tringham and his group did the same to their right, going a step further and glaring at anyone who showed too much interest. 

Ed breathed a little easier. 

When he glanced at Harry the memory of him falling to his knees in pain flashed before his eyes. He didn't look again.

* * *

There was no great award ceremony or anything, just a ministry flunkey showing up, handing him his half of the Tournaments winnings. On the one hand Ed was glad, on the other hand it was yet another part where Amestris had been denied the spotlight Bradley had probably hoped for.

Either way. It was 500 galeons. It was enough for ingredients. Enough for a little extra if things didn't work out.

* * *

There was a full week with nothing to do. Exams were over, the Tournament was over and yet School was still open until Friday which meant they wouldn't leave until then. 

Before this whole mess it was probably designed that way to further tighten the bonds between the schools. Not that Ed had made any of those connections. Al and Winry had though and they had neglected those in favor of keeping Ed company. 

"Both of you, out!" Ed growled and fixed his gaze on Al, "There is a certain Gryffindor throwing you longing glances over the table, who you haven't talked to for more than five minutes since the task."

Al looked torn, so Ed turned to Wirny next. "And you. You held a whole speech that you wanted to date someone. Don't know if anyone told you but dating includes spending time together."

Winry cocked her head looking at him intently. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine. I don't need babysitters." Not that he didn't appreciate that both of them had stuck close to him. He didn't like to admit that it had helped. Still, they had lives of their own and Ed had reached the point where using their presence to hold him together felt more like a weakness than a necessity.

Al still looked torn, but finally sighed. "Send a patronus if you want me to come back."

Ed nodded. He had no intention to leave the zeppelin for anything but meals anyway, so he doubted he would need to. He had a hand full of books, he had an alchemy project to work on. And of course Roy was here. He'd be fine.

Al smiled and then hugged him, before walking to the fireplace. Winry stayed behind a moment longer. "Are you sure?"

Ed nodded. 

"If you don't call when you need us I really will spell some pain receptors into your prosthesis!"

"Fine, fine, I promise," Ed replied, "What is wrong with you?"

Winry grinned. "So much."

But then she hugged him too and followed after Al. 

Ed closed his eyes and breathed for a second. Then he turned around grabbed his books and notes and walked into Roy's office. 

Roy looked up from whatever paperwork he had and smiled at him. 

"How are you holding up?"

Ed shrugged and let himself fall into the couch. He got less memory flashes, but outside of the zeppelin he was too aware of everyone moving and he hated leaving his back open to people. He wondered if Harry fared any better. Maybe he should talk to him, see how he was doing, especially after seeing the paper this morning. 

The ministry had denied Voldemort's continued survival, blaming the plot entirely onto two delusional former death eaters, trying to kill the person who caused the downfall of their lord. They hadn't explicitly stated that Harry's version of events was a lie, but it was implied. They had also conveniently executed the fake Moody, making it all the more difficult to prove them wrong.

"Britain is fucked up," Ed finally stated.

"And it's only going to get worse if they continue to bury their head in the sand," Roy agreed, "But that still doesn't tell me how you are."

Ed hesitated, then sighed. "Getting better."

"But not there yet?" Roy said.

Ed shrugged again. He knew how this went from the aftermath of that stupid Never Again mission. The hyper vigilance would go down and he'd learn how to ignore when his memory dragged up scenes from the graveyard. There'd be occasional nightmares where things didn't go as well as they had. Give it a week and he'd believe himself when he said he was fine. 

"That's okay, you know," Roy said gently.

"I know," Ed agreed, then changed the subject, pointing to his books and notes. "You mind the company?"

Roy smiled and shook his head, then after a second hesitation he picked up his wand and conjured a table for Ed to work on, "Feel right at home."

Ed smiled. 'Feel right at home,' was a big step up from 'My door is always open.' And Roy was all about words, he knew exactly what he was saying.

Ed settled more comfortably into the couch and spread his notes on the table and very carefully didn't show that he'd felt Roy's fond gaze linger a few seconds longer.

* * *

Ed had never made up his mind whether he wanted to talk to Harry, but in the end chance took the decision out of his hands. Or maybe it was Hogwarts and its strange quirks which led Ed to this alcove instead of the library. 

Harry sat with his feet up on the bench under the alcove's window, but Ed didn't think for a second that he hadn't realized Ed was coming, not if the tensing of his shoulders was anything to go by. He definitely wasn't the only one with a problem of hyper vigilance. 

"Crowded places are hell right now, aren't they?" Ed asked, instead of something stupid like 'How are you?'

"You too, huh?" Harry replied.

"Yep," Ed said and sat down on the opposite end of the bench, "If it helps any, it will get better again."

"But not go away completely," Harry agreed. 

Ed took that in. That sounded like experience. And Roy had said something like that, hadn't he? That Harry had previous encounters with Voldemort. Fucking hell, the kid wasn't even sixteen yet. 

"So, what's your coping mechanism of choice?" Ed asked. Because sitting alone brooding about it was not a good idea.

Harry shrugged and looked out the window. Ed followed his gaze and realized they were looking at the Quidditch pitch. The hedges were gone now, but the usual hoops hadn't been put back in place yet and the grass was next to nonexistent. "Flying," Harry finally said.

Ed grimaced. "Can't say I ever got the appeal. I prefer books and alchemy." 

Harry shot him a dubious look, Ed just grinned.

"So why are you here instead of out there flying?" Ed asked.

Harry shrugged again and then: "Didn't want company and didn't want to go alone."

Ed hesitated, "You want me to leave you alone?" He hadn't gotten that impression, but he didn't always get people in general, so he could be wrong.

"No," Harry said and after a beat of silence: "You get what happened."

Ah, yes. That was how Ed had ended up with Ling's and Lan-Fan's dubious friendship. They were annoying, but they also got it, didn't need to ask questions. 

Ed hesitated. On the one hand, he wanted to get to the library, get a book, hole himself up somewhere, but on the other...

"Want me to go to the Quidditch pitch with you? I'm not going to get on a broom, but I could probably charm you some things to keep you on your toes in the air." He had no idea what position Harry played, but unless he was a keeper, all players had to know how to avoid obstacles. He could do that, test out some charms while he was at it, get the kid's mind on something normal for once.

Harry rewarded him with a bright grin. "Sure. If you don't mind?"

"I don't mind. Can train some precision casting while I'm at it. Or maybe figure out how to fly without a broom." Was that more air alchemy or maybe a variation of levitation charms? Or what if he stretched a feather light charm to its maximum making himself lighter than air? Hm...

"I'm gonna go get my broom, meet you down there?" 

"See you there," Ed agreed distractedly. Not lighter than air, or at least not all the time or he'd just keep rising up. But that would mean constantly adjusting just how light he made himself and it would still only give him up and down movement. He'd need some propulsion too...

* * *

So this was good bye. 

Ed could see Krum talking to Hermione, Tringham stood with some other Durmstrang guy. Fleur was talking to Harry and Ron, Winry was chatting with the Weasley twins, before grinning widely and throwing herself at the left of the two in a passionate kiss Ed really didn't need to see. A bit closer to him Al and May were gazing at each other, hands clasped, both of them with tears in their eyes. 

He suspected they would see more of May in the future. Already Al had hinted that he wanted to invite her once they were done brewing. 

Ed wasn't as sure about Winry's relationship, but he suspected that even if it didn't survive the distance, they'd stay friends. He'd overheard them discuss product ideas for a future shop and Winry had been all too happy to add her two cents.

Movement closer to him made Ed tense more until he recognized Cedric.

"There you are. I wanted to say goodbye properly."

A bit behind him his Yule Ball date was waiting, but she hadn't approached. 

"It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Ed said. He doubted he would ever see him again, but Cedric was a good guy.

Cedric took his offered hand. "Likewise." 

Ed hesitated. He had seen the way the newspaper started to spin things. And maybe this was unnecessary, but as he'd said, Cedric was a good guy and someone people trusted. "I don't think Harry is lying."

Cedric cocked his head, but then nodded. "This is like when he said he hadn't put his name in and no-one believed him."

"And if history repeats itself half the school is going to turn against him," Ed agreed.

Cedric gave a half smile. "You know, I made a rule. I'm not talking to anyone who's wearing a button. I think I can adapt that for future problems."

Ed felt a smile tug at his own lips.

"Good man."

"I do my best," Cedric agreed, "Get home safe."

"You too."

And then Cedric turned around, back to his girl and into the crowd.

Ed took a deep breath and made his own way into the crowd. There was one more person he should probably say goodbye to. 

When he reached Harry, Ron and Hermione were with him, but of course Harry saw him first.

"Crowds are still hell, then?" Harry asked.

"I want a wall at my back," Ed agreed and Harry didn't need Harry to say it, to hear the 'Me too.'

"Came to say goodbye?" Harry asked. 

"I thought I might as well," Ed agreed, "Not sure if we'll see each other again, but it was a pleasure to meet you."

Harry nodded. "Stay safe out there, yeah? If Voldemort decides to hold a grudge, he'll send people after you."

Ed hadn't considered that, but the war had spilled beyond the borders of Britain last time. If it happened again... "I'll be careful," Ed said, "And you do the same. Stay alive." Because Harry definitely had a target on his back.

Harry nodded. "I'll do my best."

Ed glanced at Ron and Hermione, then back at Harry. "Goodbye."

He got three goodbyes in return before he turned around and strode up to the zeppelin. 

A moment later Winry and Al fell into step with him. 

"I can't believe school is over," Winry said.

"Neither can I," Al agreed.

"I don't think I'm going to miss it," Ed said. They'd often worked and overworked themselves, trying to be the best they could be, trying to find a cure or in Winry's case trying to make the perfect prosthesis.

"But we'll see each other less," Al said. Which was true. Winry wanted to gain a Mastery in charms, had already found someone to apprentice under. Al wanted to do medical research. Ed suspected he still had the idea to regrow lost limbs. And Ed would do research too, but in the Department of Mysteries. 

"We'll make the time," Winry said, "At least once a week."

Ed nodded. They would, but first they had three weeks until their NEWT results came in, enough time to get their ingredients together and brew the cure for Al.

And after that, well...

* * *

Ed could have written a letter. He could have floo called. Instead he apparated. 

For a moment he hesitated, but then he opened the door without knocking. 

Roy looked up from his desk and yet more paperwork.

"Fullmetal," he greeted. 

Ed grinned. "Flame."

And for the first time Roy's face didn't go blank when he said it, instead he got a small smirk in return. 

"How's Al?" Roy asked. 

Ed's grin widened. "Brilliant."

"And you?"

"Depends," Ed said, "Are you going to come get a coffee with me?" Technically he already had an answer, but his heart still beat much too fast.

Roy smiled. "Let me get my coat."

Ed grinned so hard his cheeks hurt, when Roy stepped around his desk, coat over his arm. For a moment they looked at each other and then Roy carefully reached out and brushed a strand of hair from Ed's face, his fingers brushing lightly against his cheekbone, lingering for a second longer.

Ed could still feel the path Roy's fingers had taken like a fiery line. Suddenly he was breathless. Roy's smile turned into a smirk and, fuck, Ed loved him like this.

"Come on then," Roy said and took his hand. Ed held on and followed him out the door, feeling like he could fly.

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the RoyEd month 2020. Day 26: Hogwarts  
> Thank you for reading :) and if you see mistakes they are mine.


End file.
